从军事到财政:明代中后期民壮的功能转变

From Military Forces to Financial Aids:the Functional Change of Militias in Mid-Ming China

明代民壮经历了从军事力量到地方财政补充的变化过程。这个过程以民壮作为补卫所之不足的特殊军事力量为开始,暂时满足了帝国边疆防御征剿和地方治安的需求,而成为了明代政府危机应对的手段。随着制度化建设带来的民壮队伍的充足和泛滥,以及明代中后期地方财政紧张的现实,民壮趋于法定徭役而成为缓解地方财政压力的途径之一。通过私役民壮与扣追工食等方式,地方政府对于该种徭役的性质与用途进行了工具化的改革。这一方面反映出明代地方政府在财政规模定额的框架下,以缩小财政支出规模从而行使行政职能所做的努力;也反映出明人巧于用短的折衷主义与工具理性。

In response to the failing conventional defense system,the militia system was established for military use in the mid-Ming.Institutional improvement and worsening fiscal insufficiency led the local governments to transform their corvee services.The militia system then underwent a series of instrumentalized transitions resulting in the abolition of the original meaning of“crisis responses.”Consequently,not only did the militias function as financial aids to the local revenues,but also the local governments’administrative abilities remained unimpaired under the administrative-cum-fiscal structure of the central government.